Man who Murdered Roommate Misses Her 'More Than Anyone'

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

A 55-year-old man convicted of killing his roommate, an Iraq War veteran missing for about two weeks before her body was found in Modjeska Canyon, was sentenced today to 15 years to life in prison.

Kwang Chol Joy insisted he was innocent and said he missed the 36-year- old roommate Maribel Ramos he was convicted of killing. Joy was convicted of second-degree murder July 29.

In a long, rambling statement to Orange County Superior Court Judge William Froeberg, Joy said he had named the victim as the sole beneficiary in a life insurance policy. He also said an officer who testified the defendant said the two had a sexual relationship had perjured herself because Joy and Ramos were just friends.

“I miss Maribel more than anyone,” he said. “I told the investigators and I’ll say it again that I would give my life for Maribel.”

Joy claimed there was “a lot of evidence that did not come out” at trial.

“If it came out it would have made a big difference in the outcome,” Joy said.

Joy said he thinks about the victim nearly every day and that he also misses the dogs they cared for together.

Joy indicated he wrote 50 letters to the judge since the conviction, and Froeberg acknowledged receiving many of them.

“Today, justice was not done for Maribel Ramos or myself,” Joy said.

Froeberg did not agree.

“I think I speak for everyone who participated in this trial that justice was done,” Froeberg said. “I think I also speak for the family, who I don’t think would agree with anything you said other than your coming to California was a mistake.”

The victim’s sister, Lucy Gonzalez, told City News Service after the sentencing that Joy’s comments angered her.

“I was extremely angry,” she said. “I wish I would have read my victim impact statement which basically said stop lying to yourself. I just wanted to yell at him and say stop lying.”

Gonzalez was emotional and hesitated to address the judge as she struggled to read a statement from her daughter, Iris Giselle Cendejas.

“My auntie and my mom made me what I am today,” Cendejas said in the statement. “Now that she’s gone, I will work 20 times harder to make her proud of me.”

The lack of a cause of death meant jurors had to wade through many legal options and voluminous jury instructions, Senior Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons said.

According to trial testimony, the defendant and victim -- who shared an apartment in Orange -- had an “intense argument” the night of May 2, 2013, and friends and family reported her missing the following day when they were unable to contact her.

Simmons told jurors that the “big break” in the case came when investigators had Joy under surveillance and caught him doing research on a public library computer on how long it takes for a body to decompose and how close a search party was getting to the spot where he buried Ramos’ body.

Joy “did a virtual drive-by of where he dumped” Ramos’ body, the prosecutor said.

“You’ve heard the old adage that the killer returns to the scene of the crime? He did,” Simmons said.

Simmons told reporters after the verdict that if not for those computer searches, a case wouldn’t have been filed.

“That was a huge turning point in this case,” Simmons said.

Joy’s online searches led investigators straight to the victim, he said.

After Joy searched for the information on the decomposition of a human body, he tried to erase his browsing history, apparently not realizing it was simple for investigators to forensically retrieve the information later, Simmons said.

During the search for Ramos, Joy gave media interviews.

“The defendant made a conscious decision to lie to police and the media, claiming he had no idea what happened to Maribel over and over again,” Simmons told the jury. “And all the time he knows he buried her after murdering her... What kind of person does that? A cold-blooded person.”

Ramos disappeared just days before she was about to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fullerton.

PHOTO Patch file photo.